The Center for Public Integrity and InsideClimate News have been reporting on air pollution in the Eagle Ford for more than a year and a half. The sorts of complaints first raised here are being echoed in the newer Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas, where drilling has soared the past several years.
That makes the Barnett region a laboratory of sorts, the longest-running experiment about what it means for people when fracked wells and their associated equipment move into neighborhoods on a large scale. Fracking - pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground to shake lose gas and oil - kick-started the shale boom that brought drilling into urban and suburban places. The Barnett boom kicked off about 15 years ago, the early wave of a new phenomenon: Millions of Americans, rather than a relative handful in remote places, living amid the work of getting oil and gas out of the ground. “I think the level of evidence that we currently have is enough to invoke the precautionary principal and take precautions to protect the public who live close to oil and gas development against the potential health effects of toxic exposure,” said Epstein, whose city sits at the edge of another Texas shale play, the Permian Basin. Epstein, an internal medicine specialist who sits on the Lubbock, Texas, Board of Health, reviewed the research herself and saw it as a call to action. This year a 16-university group recommended substantially more research given the potential problems.ĭr.
Yale University researchers surveying Pennsylvania residents - without mentioning gas - determined that those living close to wells were significantly more likely to report having skin and upper-respiratory problems than those farther away. A Colorado study found more babies born with congenital heart defects in gas-well-intensive areas than in places without wells. Measurements taken near sites that residents identified as problematic in five states found spikes in air toxics such as benzene, which can cause leukemia. Oil and gas emissions vary greatly, making it difficult to assess impacts on health - one Texan uses the phrase “trying to chase air.”īut scientific research - coming out now after years of sparse information - suggests that proximity could pose risks.The Barnett region is more than twice the size of Delaware, and its 26 air monitoring stations leave most of it uncovered.The Barnett is the longest-running experiment about what happens when fracking operations move next door to people.The Barnett Shale, birthplace of modern fracking, lies beneath 5,000 square miles in North Texas and has 16,000 gas-producing wells.Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here. NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Summary Source | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: chemical #1 PFAS #2 **E.P.A.** #3 substances #4 toxic #5 commerce, and this line of defense is struggling to maintain its integrity," the whistle-blowers said in their disclosure, which was released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Maryland-based nonprofit group. scientists evaluating new chemicals "Are the last line of defense between harmful - even deadly - chemicals and their introduction into U.S. office in charge of reviewing toxic chemicals tampered with the assessments of dozens of chemicals to make them appear safer.Į.P.A. In recent days, whistle-blowers have alleged in the Intercept that the E.P.A. The Toxic Substances Control Act grandfathered in thousands of chemicals already in commercial use, including many PFAS chemicals. The E.P.A.'s assessment was carried out under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which authorizes the agency to review and regulate new chemicals before they are manufactured or distributed. Still, he said it was clear "That the approved polymer, if and when it breaks down in the environment, will break down into PFAS.". Schug, a professor of analytical Chemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington, said the chemicals identified in the FracFocus database fell into the PFAS group of compounds, although he added that there was not enough information to make a direct link between the chemicals in the database to the ones approved by the E.P.A. (I'm a bot)Ī class of man-made chemicals that are toxic even in minuscule concentrations, for decades PFAS were used to make products like nonstick pans, stain-resistant carpeting and firefighting foam.
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